Of
the 58,000 ConsumerReports.org readers surveyed,
AT&T received the lowest customer satisfaction score and was the
only carrier to drop significantly. Of the AT&T respondents, more
than half were iPhone users. According to the survey, they were "much
less satisfied with their carrier and rated data service (Web and
e-mail lower than owners of smartphones on other carriers."

These
findings mirror those of an earlier
study by Deloitte, which found that nearly half of all current
iPhone users would be interested in switching to a Verizon iteration
of the device, mostly due to overwhelming dissatisfaction with AT&T.

“Our
survey suggests that an iPhone from Verizon Wireless, which
is rumored, could indeed be good news for iPhone fans,” said
Paul Reynolds, Electronics Editor for Consumer
Reports.

Some
other interesting findings of the CR survey:

-
U.S. Cellular, in a major coup, overcame Verizon Wireless as the
top-rated wireless provider for contract service.

-
Sprint, in "a remarkable turnaround," scored higher than
Verizon -- the de facto leader in overall satisfaction since 2003 --
in some aspects, and pulled even with Big Red overall.

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To be fair to AT&T though. They were and would still be irrelevant as far as a wireless carrier if not for the unparalleled instant success that the iphone is.

Honestly, has any other wireless company experienced such a surge in customers from one phone's release. They took a chance with Apple, and low and behold the risk paid off. I am sure that in their risk management, however, investing hugely into their infrastructure ahead of time wasn't worth the risk.. If said iPhone fails, they have huge brand new 3G coverage everywhere and no one using it. As no one would switch to AT&T otherwise..

AT&T Wireless/Cingular was already the largest carrier in the country, before iPhone launched, so I would hardly have called them irrelevant. Though, it's obvious the iPhone boosted business even further.

Yes, this is a dead horse issue. However, if it is more important for an individual to have an iPhone than it is to be on a good network, then you get what you deserve, as you are a fool and totally miss the point of a cell/smartphone, which is COMMUNICATION. If you have none, your phone is nothing but a toy. So, unless you have been with AT&T for some time now and didn't know they sucked when you signed up, everyone knows now and there is no excuse for bitching. You chose them, they didn't choose you!

I think those are the criteria that is helping Sprint. All of the 'value' categories clearly go to Sprint. Sprint also has been operating a limited Wimax footprint which has been pretty good for the customers covered.

Do remember that Consumer Reports has always rewarded adequately performing / low cost products over superior, but high-priced options. There is nothing wrong with that, but that is something they favor in reviews and testing. It is definitely a sign of improvement by Sprint. Now all they have to do is stop losing 3/4 of a billion dollars every quarter and the market will get more competitive.

I would also mention that AT&T isn't that bad. They provide better service than Sprint, but they charge as much at Verizon so they get punished for having a twitchy network and being expensive. T-Mobile is really starting to slide though. I guess they are going to be purchased this year. Probably by Comcast.

No, I beg to differ, I think this editorial from Consumer Reports is dead on and makes it quite clear AT&T does not offer betetr service... this is a hgue "duh". Despite Sprint just being ahead of AT&T in every possible segment ranked here, value si only one segment, the reset has nothing to do with value or copst. Their network is realistcally twice as large as AT&T's in backhaul capacity.

Let's say even if they did offer better service than a couple of the companies lsited here, they are still charging Verizon prices and offering crappy customer service. In fact, they are one of the most expensive AND they have crappy customer service so it's a no brainer to leave AT&T for better and cheaper service.

-Browser posted my previous comment before I could edit it... I type fast.

No, I beg to differ, I think this editorial from Consumer Reports is dead on and makes it quite clear AT&T does not offer better service... this is a huge "duh" when looking at the reader comments and general testimonials. Despite Sprint just being ahead of AT&T in every possible segment ranked here, value is only one segment, the rest has nothing to do with value. Their network is realistcally twice as large as AT&T's in backhaul capacity.

Let's say even if they did offer better service than a couple of the companies listed here, they are still charging Verizon prices for a lesser experience. In fact, they are one of the most expensive and they have crappy customer service so it's a no brainer to leave AT&T for better and cheaper service.

quote: would also mention that AT&T isn't that bad. They provide better service than Sprint, but they charge as much at Verizon so they get punished for having a twitchy network and being expensive. T-Mobile is really starting to slide though. I guess they are going to be purchased this year. Probably by Comcast.

Do you have any data to support that b.s. or just more Verizon is my favorite and everyone else sucks nonsense. I have a Tmob windows phone (traded in my G2)my kids are on sprint with an evo and a bb and the wife has an Iphone on guess who? I pay them all and deal with everyone of the contracts (about $400 a month). Your facts dont align with my experiences.

After being a Alltel/Verizon customer for about 10 years, I just switched to Sprint this past month. The local Verizon store wouldn't deal with me on phones and their contract cost more per month than an equivalent Sprint contract. Been using Sprint for a couple weeks now and so far no complaints.

AT&T, more bars in more places, until you hit the dial button. I've lost count of how many times I've had 4-5 bars, hit the dial button, and watched the bars disappear and the phone beep for a uncompleted call. Then a moment later all the bars reappear.

Still, I understand (from this web site) that AT&T is loosing money on it's wired home phone service that the government won't let them dump. I wonder if they could afford to upgrade their cellular service if they weren't having to support the wired service.

Of course, given the poor quality of their cellular service, I cringe at the thought of dumping wired home service. I've never had to call 911, and I don't want to relay on AT&T wireless if I do.

Was speaking with a guy at the AT&T store and we had the same reservations, but now they have everyones home phone number associated in a database that the 911 operators use to locate you. So, the issue of finding you via VOIP is not the same as it was years ago. We switched and should save $20 a month easily and get the added discounts for having everything bundled. We have had very good service with AT&T over the years and we have had cell phone service since the early 90's.

I've been an iPhone user since summer of 2008 and I very rarely have any voice or data issues. I'm not an Apple fanboy, I don't care much for Jobs or his business model, but whatever problems everyone else is having with ATT, I don't have them. I use my iPhone on the road, in buildings, in my home and it works.

I have to agree. It was noted that Half the complaints and reviews were from iPhone users. I'd love to see the ratings of iPhone users compared to other phone users on At&t. If the average score is higher by any kind of margin then you'd really have to blame the phone itself. I mean these are Apple users that are basically sheep. The media blames At&t and Apple blames At&t so all the sheep follow.

I'm not a fan of At&t but in areas where they do have good coverage it works great and is really fast but in others its piss poor and slow.

Like when going to Mammoth for snowboarding. You'll almost have no services at all. The network tells your phone its 2 time zones over. My friends and I all had our phones switch to central time yet we never left the pacific time zone. Why it skipped over mountain time is another question completely. What I don't get is the small towns on the trip up to Mammoth all have 3G but once you get there you only get edge. Shouldn't they upgrade areas with more customers before ones with less? Must be the lack of backhaul capacity.

It's nice to see US Cellular get a good score. They are the only one on the list who has free incoming calls/texts/pics/etc. standard.

I'm with Sprint now and ready to jump to them. I'm so sick of the scam that the major providers have with regards to incoming messages. They talk your friends into signing up with a text plan (Unlimited!!!! GD it!) and then you get a bunch of texts from them and that forces you to get a plan. Or you tell your friends not to text you, like I have, but you still get something from someone that you don't want or just some plain ol' spam and you are paying an extra +/-3 bucks/mo. Sprint has been nice enough to give me 10 texts free to appease my anger, but I know that I am in the minority as far as someone who will put up with this crap and not fold and get a text plan.

Of course I can turn the ability to text off completely which Sprint has offered to do, but there are times when texts are useful and I currently just see the $3/mo as the fee for having that luxury.

So I will be going to US Cellular as soon as my contract is up. And I will jump into that without a contract as I am sick of that crap too. </bitterness>